More on the lowering of electricity rates

Turning to other news, on Tuesday the Public Utilities Commission said it had not received any objections to the proposed six point one-four percent reduction in electricity rates that it announced earlier in the month. Well today, B.E.L. stepped in line and announced that the P.U.C. is not to expect any objections, but it wants a cut in business tax. With that out of the way, consumers should be seeing a decrease in light bills beginning in February. While B.E.L. is not standing in the way of the decrease which both the P.U.C. and the Prime Minister pre-empted, the utility company says it will be taking measures to offset the drop in revenue occasioned by the reduction. According to the statement, “B.E.L. will be targeting cost savings in materials purchased and contracted services, as well as applying to the Government of Belize to reduce the business tax.” The company also warns that the reductions will be sustainable if the actual cost of power remains at the projected level or lower. B.E.L. buys most of the power from Commission Federal de Mexico, BECOL, and BELCOGEN. One more issue; B.E.L. says it will be further reviewing its initial proposal for an increase in fees to discourage meter tampering and sub-standard wiring since the Company is of the view that honest paying customers should not in any way subsidize those who refuse to comply with the law.

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9 Responses for “More on the lowering of electricity rates”

We belizeans either are toooooo slow to understand and that is why we deserve the type of govenment we have or too complacent on national issues.. Decrease in light bills but pay no business tax.. Do you know how this shortage of business tax to government afffect us.. Yes,, by having garbage in our streets, bad roads and going to hospitals and no quality service because there is no money to pay for it. Do you know where cutting in cost and contracts to offset the decrease affect us… By having no quality service in electricity and more blackouts soon and having a low standard of maintenance to the company which they will drive until its not good and we the taxpayers will have to pay a new one after suffering all the new inconveniences. I am in the mindset that we need to help our poor belizeans and we shoudl BUT we need to understand that government does not produce wealth nor generate income, nor employment.. Its hardworking belizeans with their payments to income tax and our business community that pay all these taxes so government can pay its employees, maintain our roads, hospitals etc…Also, giving handouts to our poor belizeans do not solve the problem and makes them more dependent and productive, HOWEVER, it can buy votes and that is where governmentss play with poor people needs and we fall because of neccesity. A government that is seriour in helping poor people willl create opportunities and create an environment of innovation and investment so that there is a plan for employment so belizeans can empower themselves and WORK and become productive to belize. HARDWORK and a day of salary is not bad for our people NOT handouts andd giveaways. This iss liking having a very bad toothache and giving it an aspirin so the pain will go away but 6 hours later the pain will come back. We need to operate and extract the tooth to find a final solution. This is where a smart and competitive government should show its leadership and competiteveness to deserve to be in government. With a population of 350,000 we should not be the 6 most violent country in the world, 40% of our population poor and unemployment of over 24%. It does not matter if its UDP or PUP it shows plain incompetitiveness.. imagine when we are a million. BUT we belizeans have the fault, too complascent, play the victime role,not demand solutions and extend oour hands to the giveaways. think about it….

All of this begs the question: if GOB had not raised the business tax from 1.5% to 6% on Fortis-owned BEL in 2010, would they have had the cash-flow crises of 2010-2011?? The same crisis that PM and John Avery blamed on “poor management”. Isn’t the current suggestion of a tax cut to facilitate a rate reduction a tacit admission that it was NOT poor management but rather politics that brought Fortis-owned BEL to its knees??

Tanya, its called POPULISM, and its the oldest trick in the political playbook, and sadly yes it requires an un-informed electorate.

The people who wrote the length posts are smart. How much was the the 6% business tax. BEL made over 180million so is it the 6% of that money. What a load of crap we were fed by our PM. The onlyway this was possible is if the business tax was removed. the PM introduced the business tax by claiming that John Avery said that BEL was making a ton load of profit so tax the hell out of them. Where will the government find that amount of money, raise GST. They will now be short of a $#!%load of money and will have to tax us to get it back. They can’t sell anything, there is no commercial business to get the tax from, so what else is there but GST. Yeah, nada will change from now to elections but wait, dog wil eat we supper, if this government gets its way. Before they collected a lot of tax from BTL, BEL and WASA but no tax on internet, BTL not paying much tax, hell we are going to pay. And what bout them dividends BEL should pay, guess that gone out the window with this rate cut, so SS get screwed again. People elect a government to govern them not make populist decisions. Populist decisions lead to cuba and Venezuela.